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what speakers to buy

so this is my 1st time posting. the question is what speakers. i am going into this blind trying to put together a decent system on a budget. i live in a city where bose is considered the high end of high end and the nearest audiophile shops are hours away.
over the years i have owned a lot of vintage gear and still collect some of it. solid state and tube. some of the tube gear was marantz, macintosh, dynaco, heathkit, radio craftsmen, pilot etc. also the usual solid state marantz, pioneer, kenwood, adcom. speakers jbl, polk, altec (model 19 and vott), paradigm, klipsch, bozak, sansui, AR, advent. all the usual suspects
so far i have purchased a copland tube pre cta-305 and a pair of rogue audio m180 amps. all mint condition all under a year old for under half price of new. i also have a denon DP-60L TT 
(with sumiko pearl cartridge)
speaker budget is around 5000 give or take a 1000. if i'm patient i think i can find something that was originally in the 12-20k price range for what i want to spend.
so far i am leaning towards ew andra ii, dali euphonia 800, canton reference 3.2, revel studio ii. size is also a factor and all of these are within that limit.
i have a fairly large area open concept living /dinning and breakfast nook with high ceilings.
and i know "dont buy without listening" but not an option
so looking for some opinions/options

after speakers i will be getting tuner, cd and music server, current interconnects and speaker wire are all ZU mission


dragonbutx
thehorn
111 posts
 
Can you give us approx dimension & configuration specs of your digs?
hddg's avatar
hddg
123 posts
 
If you like to use the "normal" direct radiating speakers, I will tell you that it is no point in searching further than the XTZ Divine Alpha. Focals, B&W, Wilson, and the usuals at twice their price would not compete, amp for amp. They are beautiful, sound beautiful, and are extensively tunable to your room an/or liking, and give you option to go crossover active too. 
If you want dynamic, realistic, big sound, image, soundstage, slam, resolution, timing, phase consistency/coherence etc.. get a Tannoy dual concentric ... in your budget, the Legacy Arden will give you just about everything.
2psyop's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
2psyop
1,539 posts
 
If I were spending $5k on speakers I would setup auditions at Chicago audio shops for 1 day. Drive there, audition with your music and see a little bit of Chicago. If you can swing a budget hotel, stay the night and go back to listen to your favs. If nothing else, you get much closer to the brands and models you like...first hand. No chance of shipping problems and if you plan your trip in an organized way, you will maximize a good number of speakers to hear ie....Audio shop a - three brands, audio shop b- four brands and audio shop c- 2 brands. That could be 10-12 speakers in one day. If you cannot afford the speakers you have listened to and like drive home and look for a good used pair. To me $5k is a little too much to leave to chance for the buying and selling method till you find what you want. It takes too long.. too much can go wrong.
lradder
55 posts
 
Hey Soundwatts...Glad I'm not alone in the appreciation! In addition, I have a PS Audio NuWave DAC, A Bluesound Vault 2 Streamer/Storage, an Audioquest Niagara 1000 Conditioner, and various Audioquest Cables and Rocket 88 Speaker Cables.
buellrider97
376 posts
 
Hi , interesting question . My buddy has a Roque Hera preamp and the same Monoblocs . He was running the Acoustic Zen Adagios . He has Bryston DAC and Transport . He runs the Acoustic Zen Hologram cables . He has more in cables than I do in my whole system . I thought it sounded great , even had enough bass ( but he's not a metal head , like us ). He recently switched back to Dali Halcyon 300 II's and the better JL subs( 5K ) . He has about 3-4 thousand in room treatments and a 5k sound analyzer . He just went to 20 amp outlets and a better power center . The funny thing is he found out his amps were starving for power and now he has too much . We're gonna retube with KT-77's per Rogues recommendation. So even with a ton of stuff and a wad of cash , he's not happy . So watching him and hearing you . Get the Focals , or some other Big Ass Speakers . I have vintage JBL's and they are too crude . I have ZU's and love them , but they are DIFFEENT ! So get some modern speakers with duel 10" power hungry drivers and some big power cords . Spike em and run some quality mid tier speaker cables . And ROCK OUT ! Please post your results , cause big tube mono's are on my want list . And I don't have a Champagne budget . And please people,  No Snobs . Best wishes , Mike . 
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